A reasonable person might be tempted to call Francis Egan foolhardy. Nearly
three years after it was forced to suspend fracking near Blackpool after
triggering two minor earthquakes, Cuadrilla, the shale gas explorer of which
he is chief executive, is returning for another crack — or frack, to be more
precise.

On Thursday, Cuadrilla delivered eight large boxes containing seven volumes
and 4,500 pages of environmental planning documents to Lancashire County
Council in Preston. The company wants to frack eight wells at two new sites
in the county, which would be the first in Britain since 2011.